|
|
|
|
All content © Bob MuIIins |
||
 
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 5 , Stage 5 Paulo Goncalves rounds off the Atacama Rally with a win Team HRC’s Portuguese ace collects his third special stage win as the Atacama Rally – the fifth date of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship – comes to an end. It turned out to be a successful day all-round for Team HRC and, in particular, for Paulo Gonçalves, who stormed to victory today with a ferocious pace in the 100 kilometre special stage. The start had once again been delayed for two hours due to heavy early morning mist. The HRC rider has put in ever more consistent performances since the opening day’s mishap which robbed him of a win in the first full stage. This persistence has paid off over the course of the week and has seen the rider continue an ascent up the overall scoreboard, posting a well-deserved sixth final place. Team HRC’s second rider in the Atacama Rally, Jeremías Israel, fell short of his pre-rally expectations and was unable to find the pace in his first race back after an arm operation for an injury sustained in the Qatar Sealine. Nevertheless, the positive factors of the rally should be pointed out including one of Israel’s main objectives of getting some serious kilometres under his belt and bolstering fitness in the countdown to the Dakar. Next Team HRC outing will be the OiLibya Morocco Rally in October, due to
the fact that Peru’s Inca Rally has now been cancelled. Today was a great special stage. I started out very focused on attacking. I wanted to win the special and regain some of the positions in the overall rankings. I finished sixth and I won another stage. I’m pleased with the work and with Team HRC’s performance.
Finally we made it through to the end of the Atacama Rally and I’m pleased to get to the finish-line. It hasn’t been an easy rally for me, but I’m happy to have made it through to the end and to return home where I will continue training and preparing for the Morocco Rally and the Dakar which will follow it.
So here we are after six days in the Atacama Desert. We’ll start with the positive things first: today was another win for Paulo in the super-special, both on the second day and today on the last day as well. If he had not had the big technical problem on the first day, which cost him an hour, it would have been a really good race, especially for Paulo, who stayed focused after the mishap on the first day. It was a great motivation for the team to continue and show its best side. Paulo managed to climb up the rankings to sixth position which shows his consistency. He didn’t make any mistakes in the whole race. It was a great performance. Congratulations. It was not an easy race for Jeremias either and he had difficulty finding his rhythm after coming back from injury. He has to work more now to get into shape for the Dakar. We are now looking forward to the end of the season in Morocco where we will get the whole team together in the final race before the Dakar. Results Stage 5 Rider Standings
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 5 , Stage 4 Paulo Goncalves climbs the leaderboard with some deft navigation The Atacama Rally is drawing to a close with some thrilling and picturesque stages that have required a high degree of riding dexterity. Team HRC’s Paulo Gonçalves opened the way for most of the fourth stage, coming home in the leading group. Not for the first time, the camanchaca – the thick morning mist that dominates the desert region of Atacama – led to a delayed start. Riders got away an hour later than the scheduled start-time for safety reasons, for the second day running. The penultimate stage proved to be a demanding affair that included a thirty kilometre area of dunes and some fast track. Yesterday’s troublesome stage saw some penalizations dished out once rider’s GPSs had been checked by race officials after the race. The leading riders in the special received a twenty minute sanction for missing one of the waypoints which meant that Paulo Gonçalves was reclassified up into third place. Today, the Portuguese rider had a tough time trying to whittle down the gap with race leaders due to the sheer amount of sand in the stage. It was no pleasure cruise for Jeremias Israel either. The Chilean never really felt right throughout the race and prefered to take it steadily and focus on improving his navigation skills. Tomorrow will see the final stage of the Atacama Rally with a final special stage of a little over 100 kilometres that comes to a close in La Serena.
I’m fairly happy with today’s stage. I started from third and by kilometre 40 I was opening the way until almost the end. I’m pleased because I set a great pace and I knew that the riders behind would claw back a bit of time. The important thing is to keep up a good rhythm and navigate well. Everything went perfectly, the bike was impeccable and my navigating was great.
It was a very long stage today. I didn’t really feel that good. I wasn’t expecting it but at least I managed to have a safe ride. There were a lot of hazards – a very swift stage with long tracks at high speeds. I’m happy that we are almost at the end of this Atacama Rally and in one piece. Now we are going to start the hard stretch of training that has to take us to the Dakar in the best possible condition.
Day four of Atacama Rally. Paulo Goncalves started third but shortly after the start he took over the lead, opening the way for most of the day in a Dakar-style race with everything; sand, fast parts, technical stuff and some navigation. He again showed his consistency, finishing in the top group and doing an excellent job too. He stabilized his position and tried to get as many points as possible before the end. Tomorrow is the last day so we will see where we end up. For Jeremias it was not such a perfect day, he struggled with the navigation, finishing well in the end and is now preparing for tomorrow’s final day. Results Stage 4 Rider Standings
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 5 , Stage 3 Team HRC performs well in a gruelling desert stage Today turned out to be a rough day for everyone, not least for yesterday’s stage winner Paulo Gonçalves, who finished the third stage of the Atacama Rally with a respectable time. Team HRC were presented with a tough task today in a 240 kilometre Dakar-style desert trek in Atacama. The roadbook featured some arduous navigation as riders went in search of more than 60 waypoints. Paulo Gonçalves had to contend with a pack of adversaries in hot pursuit over the Copiapó dunes. The rivals were attacking from the more favourable position of having the Portuguese out front opening the track. Paulo got the first special off to a fine start, setting a storming pace until kilometre 30 where he began to concede. Nevertheless, a notable effort meant that damage was limited by the time the riders finally crossed the finish-line. Fellow Team HRC rider, Chilean Jeremías ‘Jere’ Israel, on a dual mission of honing navigational skills and clocking up the maximum mileage before the next Dakar, was also clearly starting to feel more at ease astride the Honda CRF4509 RALLY. The fourth date of the Atacama Rally will take the competitors to Huasco, with a total route of 378.44 kilometres including 273 against the clock.
Today was a really difficult stage. I opened the track with a really complicated stage in the dunes. At kilometre 30 I got over-confident and strayed away from a waypoint and to mark it I had to climb some really complicated dunes. When I found it and got back on to the right path I saw that some riders had already gone past, but there were tracks everywhere and I had difficulty following them. It was a really hard day for navigation. I think that I did pretty well even with a waypoint that didn’t seem to correspond, but I arrived having done it all. The bike worked well and we will keep pushing over the next couple of days.
Today was a better day for me, above all, because I felt much more comfortable on the bike. I was more confident and able to keep up a higher pace throughout the race. I made a couple of navigational errors, but I think that it was a day where my confidence picked up and I’m pleased about that. I hope that it goes well for Paulo over the next couple of days and we finish the race well.
Today’s stage was the Copiapo loop, mainly in the sand dunes, so it was a very tough stage. It was also a typical Dakar-style stage on hard terrain with a lot of navigation and a lot of open desert. It was very good practice. Paulo did a great job opening the track without losing so much time and he had a good experience with the navigation. Also, Jere didn’t miss any waypoints and made the most out of the day. Today’s results are not yet definitive but it looks like some riders will have penalties coming through for missed waypoints due to the tricky navigation. Let’s take the results as they come after the jury meeting and we’ll see how the starting order is for tomorrow. Two days to go and we will try our best to improve day by day. Results Stage 3 1 QUINTANILLA Pablo CHI KTM Warsaw Rally Team 3:03'13 Rider Standings
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 6 , Stage 2 Paulo Gonçalves recovers and wins the Atacama second stage Team HRC riders bounced back, after the misfortunes of yesterday, with a fierce attack on day two of the Atacama Rally, the fifth race of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. Paulo Gonçalves took victory on the day. After an unfavourable start to the Atacama Rally yesterday, Team HRC went on the offensive in both parts of today’s stage. The first leg played out over some 90 kilometres of fast track through a dried-up riverbed requiring very nifty navigational skills. After refuelling there were 120 kilometres of full throttle down dusty paths that called for far less navigation. It was Team HRC’s Paulo Goncalves who had notched up the day’s quickest time as the riders made it to the finish-line. Paulo put on a fine display of riding prowess in spite of having to navigate in the midst of the cloud of dust churned up by the riders ahead. By the end, the rider had muscled his Honda CRF450 RALLY into first position. Paulo climbs several places to eleventh on the overall scoreboard. Jeremías Israel set off looking to make up for lost time. This proved to be his undoing in the first part of the day given the difficulty of finding some of the hard-to-reach waypoints at top speed. By race end Team HRC’s Chilean rider had finished in eighth, 17’22 behind his winning team-mate. Tomorrow, the third stage of the rally will be disputed in the Atacama loop. The route starts and finishes at the bivouac and will include 236 kilometres of timed special.
After the little problem yesterday, things went much better. I started out from behind. There were dry riverbeds with a lot of dangers caused by the rains. I had all the other riders ahead and it was pretty dangerous, mainly because of the quads. The dust stopped me from going too quick due to all the dangers. I tried to race at my own rhythm. We were thinking positively and took it as it came. Everything worked out well without a problem. I will keep trying hard in the three remaining days and I will do my best with the navigation, the pace and the stamina.
Today started up with a stage in a very long dried-out river where I had a few navigation problems. The second part was over a part that, supposedly, we were to expect ‘fesh-fesh’, but it had changed a lot because the desert was all in flower! The change was incredible. I was able to go a bit better even though there was a lot of dust and made it to the finish-line without any problems. Now it’s time to get everything ready for tomorrow.
Today was the first real desert stage of the Atacama Rally and a deserved win for Paulo after his mishap yesterday. He made a clean victory and showed his class in this terrain. The team is happy and everything was working fine today. Jeremias also arrived well, losing a bit of time, but for tomorrow and the Copiapó sand loop, he has a very good starting position. Paulo will open tomorrow after his victory, which is not an advantage, but it will be a good experience going out first into the dunes, which is what we want - to gain experience and strengthen the riders ahead of the Dakar. Results
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 5 , Stage 1 Intense start to the Atacama Rally Paulo Gonçalves and Jeremías Israel got the fifth date of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship underway in Chile. The first stage of the Atacama Rally proved to be a far-from-easy one, although the team remains firmly focused on their objectives. Torrential downpours over the last few weeks, which have left the tracks and race route in a poor state, finally forced race officials to drastically reduce the length of the opening stage of the Atacama Rally. The opening stage of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship’s first visit to South America this year was thus reduced to a fifteen kilometre route that was raced over two laps. Paulo Gonçalves, after clocking the fastest time in yesterday’s prologue, had the privilege of choosing today’s starting position as the rally headed off from Viña del Mar. The Portuguese rider on the Honda CRF450 RALLY set off hoping to gain time on his rivals up ahead. Nevertheless, an unexpected electrical fault in the dunes held Paulo up and saw him concede time to adversaries. Chilean rider Jeremías Israel, seventh in the curtain-raiser, scored a similar final finish position on today’s first day of racing, likewise overcoming a minor electrical failure and experiencing a fall on second lap of the timed section. Tomorrow sees the second stage of the Atacama Rally with a special stage
of 367.30 kilometres from La Serena to Atacama. Today started just the way we didn’t want it to. After winning the prologue yesterday, I had a good starting position. Today we started the stage with a route of two fifteen kilometre loops in the area of the dunes. Unfortunately, I had an electrical problem in the first timed section and I was stopped for over an hour. Now, we have to carry on, get some kilometres done and face up to what we have got and improve it to arrive at the Dakar as best we can.
After yesterday’s winning prologue with Paulo Goncalves we had the best starting position for today to make the most of it and set a good pace for the rest of the race. Unluckily, a few kilometres into the dunes Paulo suffered an electrical problem and had a long delay until he was able to get out of the special and on to the second loop. All the hopes for him of getting a top result are gone already. For Jere it wasn’t a perfect day either, he had a problem in the first part. So we have to take it in our stride and take it as another experience and make the best out of the rest of the race and prepare for the Dakar. Results Stage 1
|
